SHANGHAI — Hiding in the back of a taxi, Wang Yuchen is too scared to be seen near the sea of mud and rubble that until weeks ago was his home village and is now set to be a building site for Walt Disney Co’s theme park.

The engineer son of farmer parents, he is one of a growing number of China’s emerging middle class to find themselves suddenly on the wrong side of the ruling Communist Party, over the hot issue of land seizures.

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